Palau’s 16‑year‑old Kazuumi Nestor began his second World Championships with confidence and pride, lining up in the Men’s 50m Butterfly alongside fellow Pacific competitor Leo Lebot from Vanuatu.
Kazuumi’s recently competed as part of the host nation in the Pacific Mini Games. Following this event, training immediately turned to the Worlds. The team are used to swimming in a short course pool, so this 50m competition was a hard one to train for. As Kazuumi stepped onto the pool deck he recalls “I was kind of thinking the pool is actually pretty long, so I was pretty nervous. I’m like ‘shoot’, can I even sprint this whole thing? But once I got next to the blocks I just zone in and then tried to do what I can do”.
The training and getting in the zone certainly worked for Kazuumi, in lane one, youngest in the pool for his heat, he was first in the pool with a superb reaction time of 0.61. This strong start was a sure fire way to take on this race with full control, with the training paying off Kazuumi took home first place in his heat with a strong time of 26.56. An outstanding personal best and national record for Palau.
As always, Kazuumi was cool and relaxed as he detailed the race “I felt pretty good. I always train in short, so it was pretty hard to move on to the long course pool. I was aiming for under 27, I got 26.5. Pretty happy about that, national record. So I just hope I get better.”
Kazuumi carried the confident words of his Coach Jimmy with him, he shared his coach’s words of wisdom “he told me to just sprint it out, just do what you can, trust your training and just keep on going”.
Kazuumi returns to the pool to represent Team Palau on day 6 to swim the 50m Freestyle, where he’ll look to finish his world stage experience with strength and speed.
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Written by The Reporters’ Academy